Jill Valentine is a fictional character from the Resident Evil survival horror video-games series by the Japanese publisher Capcom. Introduced in Japan on 22 March 1996 as one of two playable protagonists in the first game of the series, Resident Evil, Valentine is an American counterterrorism officer who works with her partner, Chris Redfield, to fight the Umbrella Corporation, an international pharmaceutical company that is running bioterrorist operations resulting in zombie outbreaks. Beyond the Resident Evil games, known as Biohazard in Japan, the character appears in Resident Evil films and novelisations, as well as in several games in the Marvel vs. Capcom franchise.
Although the character went through several design changes as the series progressed, her most prominent appearance, introduced in Resident Evil (2002) (a remake of the original 1996 title), was based on Canadian actor Julia Voth. In the films, she is portrayed by English actor Sienna Guillory. Valentine is often cited as one of the most attractive protagonists in the medium and has been featured in various Resident Evil merchandise, including action figures and card games.
The character has been both criticised and praised by several commentators. Some viewed her as a competent and professional soldier, and considered her to be less sexualised than other female gaming characters due to her military clothing. Others, however, argued that she was weakened as the protagonist by features that undermined her role as heroine, and criticised some of her sexualised costumes that players receive as rewards for completing certain tasks within the games.
Maps, Directions, and Place Reviews
Design and features
Background
Jill Valentine was introduced as one of two playable protagonists, along with her partner, Chris Redfield, in Capcom's 1996 survival horror video game Resident Evil. An American citizen with a Japanese mother and French father, Valentine is a former member of Delta Force who excelled at bomb disposal during her training. Portrayed as intelligent, brave and loyal, with expertise in weapons training and lock picking, she joined the Special Tactics And Rescue Service (STARS) and was assigned to the Raccoon City Police Department (RCPD), where she is known for having saved the lives of civilians and fellow officers before the game events.
Design
In the 1996 game Valentine wears a police uniform consisting of combat boots, tactical pants, a tight-fitting blue shirt, shoulder pads and a beret. She was not used in the 1998 sequel, Resident Evil 2, because the production team felt the game would be more frightening with new characters, but she returned as the sole protagonist of the 1999 title, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. In that game, she wears a blue tube top, black miniskirt, knee-high boots, and white sweater wrapped around her waist. The reason given by Capcom for her informal clothing is that she had just resigned from her professional duties before escaping a city overrun by zombies.
As the series progressed, the character went through several design changes. In the 2002 remake of the original game, Valentine's appearance was based on Canadian model and actor Julia Voth. Capcom producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi said they made Valentine more "kawaii" for the remake, although she remained a tough and muscular character.
For the 2009 title Resident Evil 5, production director Yasuhiro Anpo explained that the designers tried to show how Valentine and Redfield had changed with time. They retained the characters' signature colours: blue for Valentine and green for Redfield. In the game, Valentine's skin is paler and her hair blonde, both said to be side-effects from having been forced to be one of Wesker's test subjects. Voth's likeness was used again in Resident Evil 5 and other games in the series, but not in Resident Evil: Revelations (2012), which is set at sea. Her costume, in her signature blue colour, resembles a wetsuit. Her buoyancy control device was designed to have more tactical gear attached, but the gear was removed to show her "bodyline".
Alternate costumes
Alternate costumes as rewards for players are a staple of the Resident Evil series. Completing the 2002 remake with Valentine unlocks the ability to dress her in her miniskirt costume from Resident Evil 3 and as the character Sarah Connor from Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The miniskirt also appears as the alternate costume in Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D (2011). Her alternate costume in Resident Evil: Revelations is a pirate outfit.
Cute Valentine Clip Art Video
Appearances
Canon
The original game is set in July 1998 on the outskirts of the fictional town of Raccoon City in the United States. Before the game begins, a live-action cutscene shows Valentine's STARS Alpha team searching in Raccoon Forest for the Bravo Team, who went missing while investigating a series of bizarre murders in the Arklay Mountains. Chased by zombie dogs, the Alpha team retreats to the apparent safety of an abandoned mansion. The game begins inside the mansion.
Valentine initially works with Barry Burton, another Alpha team member, as they inspect the mansion and battle its undead residents. Valentine and Chris Redfield eventually discover that the mansion houses the Umbrella Corporation's Arklay Research Facility biological warfare site, where the deadly T-virus is being developed, and that STARS commander Captain Albert Wesker is a double agent for the Umbrella Corporation. Of the possible game endings, in series canon Valentine kills a supersoldier released by Wesker and escapes the self-destructing mansion with the STARS squad. As a result of these experiences, Valentine forms a strong friendship with Redfield and becomes a passionate opponent of bioterrorism. Disillusioned with the RCPD's failure to take action against Umbrella, she leaves the police service but remains in Raccoon City to investigate Umbrella.
In Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (1999), Valentine tries to escape Raccoon City, now overrun by zombies infected by the Umbrella Corporation's T-virus, before an American nuclear strike destroys it. She partners with former Umbrella soldier Carlos Oliveira, to fight Nemesis, an Umbrella supersoldier sent to eliminate remaining STARS members. Described as "one of gaming's scariest monsters", Nemesis attacks Valentine at random, and infects her with the T-virus. Oliveira discovers her unconscious but returns with the vaccine to save her. After another battle, Valentine defeats Nemesis before escaping the city in a helicopter moments before the destruction of the city and its infected residents.
In a chapter of Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles (2007), set in 2003, Valentine and Redfield, who have joined the Private Biohazard Containment Unit, a private organisation with the goal of destroying Umbrella, lead the group to expose and destroy Umbrella by raiding their research facility in Russia and defeating their new bio-engineered supersoldier. After the fall of Umbrella, Valentine and Redfield become founding members of the United Nations Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA).
Resident Evil 5 (2009) is set in the fictional African town of Kijuju in 2009, where a biological agent has turned local residents into zombies. Valentine has been missing, presumed dead, since a fight with her commander-turned-double agent Albert Wesker, years before the game's events. The fight is shown in the game's Lost in Nightmares downloadable content (DLC), in which Redfield and Valentine search for Umbrella's founder, Ozwell E. Spencer, inside a mansion on the edge of a cliff. Instead they find Wesker, who overpowers them. To save Redfield, Valentine tackles Wesker, and they both crash through a window and over the cliff. Their bodies are not recovered, and Valentine is declared dead. In fact she was injured by the fall and saved by Wesker, who then used her as a test subject in his experiments on mutagenic viruses.
During Resident Evil 5, Redfield discovers that Valentine is alive and goes in search of her. Wesker has attached a mind-control device to Valentine's chest, which makes her fight Redfield and his new partner, Sheva Alomar, a local agent. Valentine explains later that she knew what she was doing but was barely able to stop herself. She struggles to find enough self-control to open her jumpsuit so that Alomar and Redfield can see the device. Alomar pulls it off, releasing Valentine from Wesker's control. She urges Alomar and Redfield to continue with their mission to stop Wesker. The DLC episode Desperate Escape describes Valentine's escape to safety with the help of another local BSAA agent, Josh Stone.
In Resident Evil: Revelations (2012), set in 2005, Valentine is sent on a rescue mission to save Redfield from a bioterrorist group. Redfield is believed to be held on a luxury cruise ship in the Mediterranean Sea, but once Valentine and her new partner, Parker Luciani, are aboard, the rescue operation is revealed to be a trap. The ship is infested with a new breed of leech-like zombies. Meanwhile, Redfield and his new partner, Jessica Sherawat, make their way to the ship to find Valentine. Together, they slowly unravel a global conspiracy involving an earlier outbreak of a mutagenic virus and a botched investigation by a rival agency.
Other appearances
Valentine appears in several non-canon Resident Evil games. She is a playable character in mobile games in the series and the sole protagonist in Resident Evil: Genesis (2008), an alternative-story version of the original game. Apart from the Resident Evil series, she is a playable character in several games in the Marvel vs. Capcom franchise, and the crossover tactical role-playing games Project X Zone and Project X Zone 2. She makes a cameo appearance in Capcom's action-adventure game Under the Skin (2004).
Several Resident Evil films feature Valentine, played by Sienna Guillory. In Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004), she is a disgraced police officer who escapes the ruins of Raccoon City with the help of film-series protagonist Alice and other survivors. The character appears in a post-credits scene in Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010), where she is under the control of Umbrella and leads an attack against Alice, Chris Redfield, his sister Claire, and the survivors they rescued after a virus outbreak in Los Angeles. In Resident Evil: Retribution (2012), Valentine is an antagonist programmed to capture Alice, but she regains control of herself when Alice removes Wesker's mind-control device from Valentine's chest. The film includes a fight between Valentine and Alice with around 200 moves.
The character also appears in novelisations of the films and games, and plays a supporting role in the first novel, Resident Evil: Caliban Cove (1998), in a series by S. D. Perry. In Resident Evil: The Umbrella Conspiracy (1998), Perry's novelisation of the original game, Valentine's Delta Force background is not mentioned, but before her career in law enforcement she is said to have acted as an accomplice for her father, Dick Valentine, who was a professional thief. She also appears in several comic books based on the game series.
Voice-over and live-action cutscenes
The actors who featured in the live-action cutscenes and performed the voice work for the original Resident Evil were credited by their first names only. Valentine's actor, "Inezh", was at high school at the time. Valentine was voiced by Catherine Disher in Resident Evil 3; Heidi Anderson in the 2002 remake of Resident Evil, Kathleen Barr in Under the Skin; and Michelle Ruff in the non-canon game Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City. Patricia Ja Lee provided the voice and motion capture for Valentine in Resident Evil 5 and the voice for The Umbrella Chronicles. Atsuko Yuya voices Valentine in the Japanese versions of the games.
Reception
Video game publications have listed Valentine among the medium's most likeable and attractive characters. The Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition named her in 2011 as the 43rd most-popular video-game character of all time and in 2013 as "the first female player character in a survival-horror game". Several commentators say that Valentine has been less objectified than other female video-game characters, in part because of her military clothing and because she is presented as a competent professional. Other media scholars have argued that players are encouraged both to objectify and identify with her. Sarah Grimes writes that, in contrast to Redfield, Valentine displays her vulnerability and has several times assumed the role of damsel in distress and "final girl".
In her video series Tropes vs. Women in Video Games (2013-2017), feminist media critic Anita Sarkeesian criticises Resident Evil for sexualising its alternate costumes for women, citing as an example Valentine's pirate costume in the game Resident Evil: Revelations (2012). She also cites Valentine's movement in the game as an example of female characters who walk in an overly sexualised manner. Valentine's first appearance in the film Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004) is of her legs in a miniskirt, and the camera frequently follows her from behind. Commentators have noted that her body shape is unrealistic and does not reflect her physical training, and she was the only member of her team in the original game not to wear a bulletproof vest. Video-game journalist Bob Mackey described her miniskirt outfit in Resident Evil 3 (1999) as an "embarrassing relic" from a period that catered to teenage boys.
Resident Evil films have received consistently bad reviews. Cinefantastique described Guillory's performance as Valentine in Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004), in which Valentine has a supporting role, as the film's only "saving grace". Director Paul W. S. Anderson said that reaction to Valentine's cameo in Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010) was positive.
Toys modeled on Valentine include action figures and figurines. She is also a character in Bandai's Resident Evil Deck Building Card Game (2011). Actors portraying Valentine have appeared at Resident Evil-themed attractions at Universal Studios Japan and at Universal Orlando's Halloween Horror Nights. Capcom's themed restaurant, Biohazard Cafe & Grill S.T.A.R.S., which opened in 2012 in Shibuya, Tokyo, featured a noodles dish named after her. "You were almost a Jill sandwich", a line from Resident Evil (1996), was revived as an Internet meme a decade later. The quip, delivered in awkward voiceover by Valentine's partner, Barry Burton, after a falling ceiling trap almost crushes her, became the subject of fan art depicting Valentine as a sandwich. Capcom references the line in their later games Dead Rising (2006) and Resident Evil: Uprising (2009).
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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